Herkimer High students share positive messages through art

“It is in our darkest moments we must focus on the light.”This quote from Aristotle Onassis served as inspiration for a group of students in Heather McCutcheon's sculpture class at Herkimer High School.

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By STEPHANIE SORRELL-WHITE, GateHouse New York

Uticaod

By STEPHANIE SORRELL-WHITE, GateHouse New York

Posted Jan. 18, 2014 at 10:45 AM

By STEPHANIE SORRELL-WHITE, GateHouse New York

Posted Jan. 18, 2014 at 10:45 AM

HERKIMER

"It is in our darkest moments we must focus on the light."

This quote from Aristotle Onassis served as inspiration for a group of students in Heather McCutcheon's sculpture class at Herkimer High School.

Using clear packing tape, the group made a life-sized sculpture of someone who has shades of blue inside but holding a bright, yellow light bulb in its hands.

"It explains how you see light in the darkest moments," said junior Olivia Aceto, one of the students who worked on the sculpture.

Aceto, along with Rachel Fromma and Victoria Wenke, adjusted installed the sculpture Wednesday in one of the stairwells at the high school.

McCutcheon said while the purpose of the project was to have the students work in groups, it also was to communicate a positive message to the greater student body.

To create the sculptures, McCutcheon explained the students had to cast the arms, legs and torsos of people. Balloons were used to cast the shape of the head.

"Some aren't completely proportional," she said.

Feedback from the students included enjoying the project, despite the "tedious" challenge it presented them.

McCutcheon supplied quotes for the groups to choose from, though at least one group came up with their own.

"I'm obsessed with Disney, so we had to use a Disney quote," said Taylor Beach, a senior.

The quote they used was "Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. Dreams are forever," which is from the Disney character Tinkerbell.

The group decided to make their sculpture look like Tinkerbell, dressed in green and suspended off the ground to look like she's flying. The group installed its work in the main hallway at the school, with clear Christmas lights set up with it.

The last two groups used a quote from author Anais Nin who said, "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."

One group put a "ratty" jacket on their sculpture, which covered up words "inside" it. Some of the words inside the sculpture included "caring" and "sensitive." On the opposite side of the hallway from where that sculpture was installed was another one that was made to look "pretty" but had words covered up, including "crazy" and "weird."

"The purpose of this project was to show that we judge people who aren't like us differently then we would judge people who are like us," read a statement from the artists posted with the sculptures. "It was also to prove that you shouldn't judge people based on their looks because some people may look nice on the outside by once you get to know them, they are mean, rude and hurtful."